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Rodrigo Duterte, the leading Philippine presidential candidate whose campaign promises a ruthless war on crime, face a wave of condemnation on Sunday after a video surfaced of him apparently joking about a murdered Australian rape victim.

Mr Duterte, who promises mass killings of suspected criminals if elected next month, appears in a YouTube video making the remarks about the female Australian missionary.

The woman, who was ministering in a prison in Davao in the southern Philippines, was raped and killed during a riot by inmates in 1989.

Mr Duterte was the city's mayor at the time.

"They raped all of the women... There was this Australian lay minister... when they took them out... I saw her face and I thought, 'Son of a bitch. what a pity... they raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first," he is shown telling a crowd of laughing supporters at a campaign rally.